John Berryman's Dream Songs




1299-Reno05-800.jpg

"Father and Son"

by Jesse Reno
Acrylic, Oil Pastel, and Graphite on 100lb Bristol Paper
14 x 11 inches



Dream Song 105: As a kid I believed in democracy: I
by John Berryman

As a kid I believed in democracy: I
'saw no alternative teaching at The Big Place I ah
put it in practice:
we'd time for one long novel: to a vote”
Gone with the Wind they voted: I crunched 'No'
and we sat down with War & Peace.

As a man I believed in democracy (nobody
ever learns anything): only one lazy day
my assistant, called James Dow,
& I were chatting, in a failure of meeting of minds,
and I said curious 'What are your real politics?'
'Oh, I'm a monarchist.'

Finishing his dissertation, in Political Science.
I resign. The universal contempt for Mr Nixon,
whom never I liked but who
alert & gutsy served us years under a dope,
since dynasty K swarmed in. Let's have a King
maybe, before a few mindless votes.

Dream Song 43: 'Oyez, oyez!' The Man Who Did Not Deliver
by John Berryman


'Oyez, oyez!' The Man Who Did Not Deliver
is before you for his deliverance, my lords.
He stands, as charged
for This by banks, That cops, by lawyers, by
publishingers for Them. I doubt he'll make
old bones.

Be.
I warned him, of a summer night: consist,
consist. Ex-wives roar.
Further, the Crown holds that they split himself,
splitting his manward chances, to his shame,
my lords, & our horror.

Behind, oh worst lean backward them who bring
un-charges: hundreds & one, children,
the pillars & the sot.
Henry thought. It is so. I must sting.
Listen! the grave ground-rhythm of a gone
. . . makar? So what.




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